Everything you need to know about CRISPR

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Contextualising CRISPR

To edit DNA is to edit the very makeup of every animal and plant on Earth. Before CRISPR was discovered, there was practically no guaranteed way to change DNA with any real accuracy. The discovery occurred in 1987 in the bacteria E.coli, but wasn’t yet called CRISPR until 2002 by Jansen et al., with its precise gene cutting function in tandem with Cas9 being experimentally validated in 2007. Such an important discovery has hit news cycles globally due to the potential for therapeutic and commercial viability having biotech stakeholders salivating. Up until recently, heavy regulation has stifled the potential progress that can be made with CRISPR/Cas9, but we are finally seeing CRISPR-derived products coming to market.

The science

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR for short, is the most precise tool we have found to edit the DNA that provides instructions for who we are. It achieves this by pairing up with the protein Cas9, which CRISPR guides to where it needs to be, and essentially acts as a pair of scissors to cut DNA in the spots where it is guided to. Through this cutting action, any part of DNA can be altered to the liking of those working with it. Possible alterations that can be made with CRISPR/Cas9 are addition of genes, removal of genes and alterations of the outcomes of genes (e.g. changing a disease-causing gene to a normal one).

Current applications

The two main fields that have the most interest in CRISPR/Cas9 technology and agtech and cellular therapy. Agtech, short for agricultural technology, aims to implement CRISPR to provide crops with genetic protection against challenges such as drought, pests and adverse conditions otherwise. Cellular therapy, on the other hand, describes medicine that involves alterations on the cellular level to improve health. By editing the DNA of cells causing disease in a patient using CRISPR/Cas9, quality of life can be improved. An example of such a cellular therapy is Casgevy, property of American biopharma company Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which replaces sickle cell disease cells with healthy cells.

Regulation

The main enemy of CRISPR/Cas9 gaining practical and commercial value until recently were governing gene regulatory bodies, as many did not have regulation permissive enough to allow innovation involving CRISPR technology. This has changed in many western areas, including the USA, EU, UK and Australia. To promote such innovation, reforms have been made for the relevant legislation. In Australia, for example, this meant futureproofing and modernising the current regulations for gene technology by implementing changes to the National Gene Technology Scheme in 2019.

Social and cultural issues

Implementation of CRISPR derived products into everyday life has been an ethical nightmare for biotechnology stakeholders (governments, biotech companies, etc). When you have the power to change anything, strong controls must be put in place to prevent rogue and irresponsible applications. For example, when researchers in China altered human embryos to have a greater resistance to HIV, the proverbial book was thrown at them for unregulated use of CRISPR on unwilling participants to provide long-lasting and permanent changes to their lives. As a result, they were punished heavily, and rightly so. Regardless of this, there would still be people who oppose CRISPR-derived products who see them as ‘unnatural’. This is more likely to be the case in agricultural spaces, which we have seen with gene edited crops such as golden rice.

The future

It is highly likely that we will continue to see innovative products made using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Since the ethical groundwork for what is/isn’t appropriate has been laid, alongside passing of permissive regulation, a framework has been derived for biotech companies to abide by. We are already seeing this come to fruition with products such as the aforementioned Casgevy, with plenty being done in field trials for agricultural products too.

It is an exciting time to be a stakeholder in the CRISPR space right now! We plan on keeping you up to date on all things biotech, and that includes this technology, so you can find us on Instagram and LinkedIn (@biostache) to be in the know!